Before My Time is about the ancestry and extended family of my four grandparents: John Samuel Krentz (Indiana/North Dakota), Margreta Tjode Hedwig (Gertie) Buss (North Dakota), Rosmer Pettis Kerr (Pennsylvania/Michigan), and Evelyn Elvina Hauer (Michigan), and other topics in genealogy and family history.

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Wednesday, April 07, 2010

The Smith surname is part of the heritage of Rosmer P. Kerr. His sixth great-grandfather was:

William Smith of Wethersfield and later Farmington, Connecticut. He married Elizabeth Standley on 16 August 1644; they had nine children. He died in 1670. William and Elizabeth were my eighth great-grandparents.

Joseph Smith of Farmington, born 25 August 1655. He appears to have had five children with his first wife, Lydia, the first being born about 1681. He married Joanna Loomis on 20 November 1691* and fathered eight more children. Based on these dates, it appears Joseph and Joanna were my seventh great-grandparents.

Ruth Smith, christened 9 December 1694 in Farmington, Connecticut. She married Joseph Sedgwick on 24 January 1723 at Hartford, Connecticut. Joseph and Ruth were my sixth great-grandparents.

Smith is one of my many New England surnames that I haven't yet sought documentation for. To be honest, it's not high on my list of priorities at this point, because I have plenty left to do among more recent generations. Still, I hope at some point to learn more about this line, especially concerning the question of whether Ruth Smith was the daughter of Joanna Loomis, as seems likely based on dates from the Loomis genealogy, or whether she was actually the daughter of Joseph Smith's first wife Lydia, as Savage suggests. See below.

James Savage on the Smith Family:

SMITH, William, Wethersfield 1644, br. of Christopher of Northampton, where prob. he did not seat hims. till ten or a dozen yrs. later, but must have been here at W. with William, or at Hartford with the other brs. Joseph, and Simon, and sis. Mary Partridge; m. 16 Aug. 1644, Eliz. Standley, perhaps d. of Timothy, made elk. of the milit. comp. next yr. perhaps was of Middletown 1649, for there are rec. b. of his first six ch. tho. prob. the first two were b. at W. viz. Jonathan, 20 Jan. 1647; Jobanah, 2 Jan. 1649; Susanna, 20 Mar. 1651; Eliz. and Mehitable, tw. 20 May 1653 ; and Joseph, 25 Aug. 1655; rem. to Farmington soon aft. join. the ch. and brot. Joseph to bapt. 15 Mar. 1657, and there had Benjamin, bapt. prob. 11 (not 14, as in Geneal. Reg. XI. 325) Apr. 1658; William, b. Apr. 1661; and Samuel, May 1664; was in the list of freem. 1669, and d. early next yr. His wid. Eliz. d. 1678, and three of the nine ch. d. in the interval, viz. Eliz. William, and Jobanah, wh. was a soldier in Capt. Newberry's comp. in Philip's war, k. by the Ind. Three of his s. Jonathan, Joseph, and Samuel, liv. at F. but nothing is kn. of their condit. [p. 136]

Starr, Frank Farnsworth, and James Junius Goodwin. Various Ancestral Lines of James Goodwin and Lucy (Morgan) Goodwin of Hartford, Connecticut. Hartford, Conn.: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Press, 1915. [See excerpt The Family of William Smith at My Ancestors in Books, or download a PDF of the Smith article from The Vertical File.]

Our Family in Books: A Bibliography

My Ancestors in Books (a library of resources and notes pertaining to Reverend Samuel Stone, Major General Robert Sedgwick, Elder John Crandall, and other early Americans in the forest where my family tree was grown)

History of St. James Lutheran Church [full title: A little of this and a little of that in the 141 year (1861-2002) History of St. James Lutheran Church, Reynolds Indiana] by Harold B. Dodge, published at Reynolds, Indiana, 2002; 170 pages.

Lisbon, North Dakota 1880-2005 Quasuicentennial, published at Lisbon, North Dakota in 2005; 391 pages.